Apple Mobile Devices Cleared For Use On US Military Networks 94
puddingebola writes with this excerpt from a Bloomberg report: "The Pentagon cleared Apple Inc. (AAPL) devices for use on its networks, setting the stage for the maker of iPhones and iPads to compete with Samsung Electronics Co. and BlackBerry for military sales. The Defense Department said in a statement [Friday] that it has approved the use of Cupertino, California-based Apple's products running a version of the iOS 6 mobile platform. The decision eventually may spur a three-way fight for a market long dominated by Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry.'" Also, Apple devices are best for uploading viruses to alien craft.
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redundancy is ok (Score:1)
so what does IOS 6 military have over (Score:2)
so what does IOS 6 military have over the main IOS?
Can you side load easily with it?
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They include real paper maps in the packaging.
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Yes, enterprise customers can side load apps on iOS.
Re:so what does IOS 6 military have over (Score:5, Funny)
It comes with drone control & angry osama apps.
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I think it disables the radios.
Enterprises could always side load ... (Score:5, Informative)
Can you side load easily with it?
Enterprises could always "side load" (bypass the Apple App Store) their own apps on their own devices.
iOS 6 is most likely specified simply because its the current version. To keep things simple. Want onto the network, then be running the current os version. That and the internal developers needs a min iOS target.
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if the shit hits the fan in dirkadirkastan you can just open the "there is no cow level" app and you instantly win
Re:Turn your rounded corner key, sir! (Score:5, Funny)
God damn it Siri, I said Call Luke Mostow not Nuke Moscow!
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"ahh fuck stupid spinning beach ball of death"
"just post the launch codes on facebook... hackers can launch the missiles for us"
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"ahh the ol' phone in brick with rounded corners trick"
Phase 2 Complete (Score:2)
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With iOS? Good luck with that.
Daylight Savings Time and whammo! No Skynet.
whats that on your website soldier (Score:5, Funny)
"a peace symbol sir"
a peace symbol? but dont you sell to the military?
"yes sir"
what are you trying to say soldier?
"something about the duality of man sir"
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What's your major malfunction numbnuts, didn't your mommy and daddy love you enough?
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Let me get this straight--you're comparing using iPhones with murder, death, and disease? You must be the biggest Apple-Hater in the world. I mean, I may not be a big fan of iPhones, but I certainly wouldn't compare owning one to having HIV.
You see, this is why we have to tell you when it is intended to be humorous. Because otherwise you go off the deep-end.
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There's a peace symbol on Apple's website? Where?
back in the day (Score:2)
when Steve Jobs was CEO, there was. i cant remember exactly which section, but i remember it. might have been the 'student' section.
American Manufacture (Score:1)
How did Samsung even get there?
Ironically while Apple executives laugh at the president at the suggestion of iphone manufacture in the states, Samsung make their chips in the US. Really its a mystery why Apple is being considered at all they are as anti American as they come. If I was cynical I would suggest its part of the deal to bring back the some imac mini manufacturing to the states...although we have seen very little actual manufacture as yet.
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I know Americans have poor geography skills, but last I checked, Austin, TX, was in the U [theregister.co.uk]
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So what you're saying is that both have their CPU manufactured in the USA, both have the physical device manufactured in the east, and only one has tens of thousands employed in the states designing the thing. Notably that same one has already begun moving production of various of their product lines to the US too.
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Most likely due to Samsung Knox [samsung.com].
Surprising Apple wants to play in that market (Score:2)
This represents a serious change in Apple's direction. They have avoided the business/enterprise market because they haven't been interested in competing in other, existing markets and certainly never wanted to be held to the same standards as the likes of Dell. But now the government/military market? This is a long way from trying to tie everything together with iTunes.
Re:Surprising Apple wants to play in that market (Score:5, Informative)
This represents a serious change in Apple's direction. They have avoided the business/enterprise market because they haven't been interested in competing in other, existing markets and certainly never wanted to be held to the same standards as the likes of Dell. But now the government/military market? This is a long way from trying to tie everything together with iTunes.
As mentioned before, you could for many years now buy an "Enterprise" developer license, which allows you to make your apps available to any unmodified iOS device without going through Apple's app store. (The license requires you to make sure that apps will _only_ be downloaded to devices belonging to that enterprise). So this license is specifically for enterprises who want to develop apps for their employees.
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You got the money, honey - I've got the time.
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You really think the DoD is telling Apple - come on, bring some manufacturing back to USA, and we will list your phone as one of the approved phones!!!
You're a bigger moron than I thought possible.
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Apple's stock is tanking
Yeah, it must really suck being the most VALUABLE TECHNOLOGY COMPANY ON EARTH.
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Let me connect some dots for you, fanboi:
Stock price is an indicator of how much a company is expanding.
In American capitalism, the only metric that is deemed to matter in determining a firm's value is its growth.
By this metric, Apple is currently a failure. Next quarter, it might not be.
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There's these stocks known as Blue Chips. You might want to read up on them.
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Stock price is an indicator of how much a company is expanding.
No, only it's financial results that tell you that. Stock price variations tell you nothing more than investor sentiment.
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They did this for Mac OS X back in 10.5 when they got their official UNIX stamp. Not surprising that they would go after an organization that literally prints money to spend on stuff.
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This represents a serious change in Apple's direction.
This is a Defense Department announcement, not an Apple one. There's nothing to indicate Apple have done anything, other than sell iPhones and enterprise licenses to all comers.
Apple might have done more, but there's no indication here. And there's certainly not any sign of a serious change of direction. Those enterprise licenses for iOS have been around for years, allowing enterprise customers to install their own apps and have control of their iPhones, without going anywhere near the iTunes App Store.
Sure
Re:Why are they doing this? (Score:4, Informative)
So now, they will spend millions and more of tax payer money, to create a special store with iOS applications, presumably a special store with Android applications, while still maintaining all of their Blackberry infrastructure.
Um, what? A Enterprise license [apple.com] will cover this scenario and costs $299/yr. It has been place for years.
It is shortsigted not to (Score:3, Informative)
This adds many levels of complexity for the infrastructure,and the hiring and training of support personal
for all sorts of devices. Why? What benefit does Pentagon bet from maintaing 3 different platforms
instead of one?
Short term its true, long term its simply stupid. Dependence on a single vendor...whoever they are is simply bad for any business. It keeps the vendors honest (massive cost saving), and better supply chain(another cost saving).
Now whether a closed ecosystem like apple should be considered at all is a different matter.
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the DoD can buy a few Mac's and develop their internal apps for their iphones and droids that will never be able to run on blackberries
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The Pentagon's had a love/hate relationship with Apple for decades. When I first got there in 1991, one of the politically appointed under-secretaries was a big Mac fan, so that entire directorate, several hundred employees, was outfitted with Macs and we integrated it with the network all while trying to come up to speed on Apple products. When his term was up, the next guy came in and wanted Windows machines.. so out with the Macs, in with the Gateways. It should be easier this time around.
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Because they're quite intelligently, avoiding getting stuck in a dead end. Wonder why businesses end up in the modern age with websites that only work on IE6? That's because they apply your thinking. The DoD are doing exactly the right thing here –making sure that all platforms that will reasonably continue into the future are supported correctly, so that they don't have all their eggs in one basket.
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Or, they will do what enterprises across the world are doing - open up a secure way for Android (via Touchdown, but some devices do whole-device encryption to a standard that counts now) and iOS to collect mail / contacts / calendars through MDM profiles, and when everyone switches away from Blackberry, shut down their BES environment and count the savings.
We did that last year in this here Fortune-20 company. The users love it, because they get to use a device they actually like, which they get to go out
Re:My Wish (Score:5, Interesting)
Two-Star General Whoever doesnt want a DoD fork of android, he wants an iphone or regular android issued by his command that he can use for official and personal use (shhh!) without having to spend $100/mo on a personal mobile phone contract.
I have LTCs wasting money on devices they dont want to use (apparently the Slate tablet isnt so hot anymore if you need ethernet and a non-bluetooth keyboard) and pestering me for devices they will have no need for (iphone, android offer few advantages over a BB7 device in regards to phone calls and email) even if they could have them or the limitations didnt make them unappealing.
our tax dollars at work, we are financing people's workplace trendiness. some will say 'so what its an iphone, replacing an existing blackberry device and contract', but its much more. Part of the DISA configuration requirements is a management server. Thats enterprise hardware and a service agreement. There will also be funded training for use of the management server. Not to mention some poor SOB will gain an additional side-duty.
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Part of the DISA configuration requirements is a management server. Thats enterprise hardware and a service agreement. There will also be funded training for use of the management server. Not to mention some poor SOB will gain an additional side-duty.
So you dump the BES and use an MDM server that talks to Android, iOS, and Blackberry. There are plenty to choose from.
Gosh, that was hard.
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Macs are de-facto no longer authorized for Army use (no current security baseline, even for a "standalone" system) and *nix is relegeted to the server room. Windows is the only game in town for workstations, yet few have a vocal issue with that (usually just Mac people). So why is there a push for three (BB, Android, and Apple) completely different products and the costs imposed by supporting them as opposed to a single s
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Blackberry is on the way down. They may recover, or they may completely implode and go the way of Nortel. Would you rather have support for other certified devices in place before they implode, or have a notoriously inefficient and prone to corruption entity like the Department of Defense rush to slap together something afterward?
It's smart to hedge bets sometimes.
(This post contains forward looking statements that may not come to pass, regarding the implosion of RIM / BlackBerry)
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I'm puzzled why you'd put the quotes around "important", and why you attribute all of this to fashion sense. These are important people, and they likely pick their tools and equipment for other reasons than fashion sense.
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The Army in the 1970s tried to impose standards for interoperability. They would create standards and require everyone to implement to their specifications on data formats, on exchange formats on languages on APIs.... It created tremendous technologies, like the internet, but it drove their costs through the roof. Ada is a good example there are only a small number of applications which support Ada and many of them are limited to very specific features. The computer industry is much larger today relativ
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While all the news and discussion on Slashdot revolves around Apple, there actually IS a fork of Android for DoD and business.
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/mobile/solution/security/samsung-knox [samsung.com]
I expect most of the security improvements will also be available for standard Android before too long.
Cameras (Score:1)
hmmm (Score:2)
This is a mistake (Score:2)
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One Word .... (Score:1)
My considerations (Score:2)
Apple is going to find out the hard way that 'fast development/aquisition' means something entirely different to Apple than it does to the military. Apple probably thinks that half a year is a long time, while the military thinks that five/ten years is quite average.
Apple is mistaken if it thinks it's going to play a role above level 'Restricted'. Well, unless it's pilots. But pilots get whatever they want anyway.
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Apple releases a new phone and tablet once a year. That's not fast, and in a market like smartphones, it's pretty damn slow when the likes of Samsung are releasing tons of phones daily. Sure they're not all SGS4s, but damn, Samsung makes hundred